Domestic donations to the PM CARES Fund fell 30 per cent to nearly Rs 479 crore in 2024-25, while foreign donations declined 18 per cent to Rs 92.8 lakh, according to its latest audit report. The Congress reacted sharply to the data, claiming that only 0.01 per cent of the available corpus had been utilised.The total balance in the PM CARES Fund stood at Rs 8,452 crore as on March 31, 2025, up from Rs 7,173 crore a year ago. Of this, Rs 7,846 crore was parked in fixed deposits and Rs 605 crore in savings bank accounts, the report said.Domestic donations to the PM CARES Fund stood at Rs 681.8 crore in 2023-24, while foreign donations totalled Rs 1.13 crore.The fund spent Rs 87.8 lakh on the PM CARES for Children Scheme during 2024-25, sharply down from Rs 15.37 crore in the previous year.Total payments made during the year 2024-25 were Rs 87.85 lakh, compared with Rs 15.6 crore in the previous fiscal.A study of the audited statements on the PM CARES Fund website shows that the voluntary domestic contribution peaked at Rs 7,184 crore in 2020-21 and then fell to Rs 1,896 crore in 2021-22, before declining further to Rs 909 crore in 2022-23.Foreign contributions have seen a sharper decline, registering a high of Rs 495 crore in 2020-21, before falling to Rs 40 crore and Rs 2.57 crore in the next two years. They now stood at Rs 92.8 lakh, the second lowest after Rs 39.7 lakh in 2019-20.The NDA government led by Narendra Modi had set up the fund with the primary objective of dealing with any kind of emergency or distress situation, like the one posed by the Covid pandemic, and to provide relief to the affected. It was registered as a public charitable trust.The PM is the ex-officio chairman of the fund that consists entirely of voluntary contributions and does not get any budgetary support.The Congress on Tuesday reiterated its criticism of the government over the utilisation of the fund. “Only 0.01 per cent of the Rs 8,452 crore available has been utilised, even as natural calamities devastate communities across the country and thousands need relief and rehabilitation. PM CARES? Hardly,” Congress Rajya Sabha MP Pawan Khera posted on X.|The Kerala Congress alleged in a post on X, “Several Chinese companies, including TikTok, Huawei and Xiaomi, donate crores of rupees to the PM CARES Fund.””Why are Chinese companies, particularly those close to the Chinese Communist Party, paying into the fund? Is this the reason why he (PM) was silent when China occupied 4,067 sq km in Ladakh? Is this the reason why he is silent on the land grab happening in Arunachal Pradesh?” the post further read.PKerala Congress also attached a screenshot of what it called an examination of public media reports, claiming that at least four Chinese companies said they would or have donated to the fund.